Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown’s choice to fill an empty seat on JEA’s board met some unusual pushback at a City Council hearing Monday.

It seems Helen Albee, an attorney Brown picked for the seat, represented Springfield property owners who had sued because property records contained warnings that their land might contain hazardous incinerator ash the city is spending millions to clean up. The council approved a $90,000 settlement last week.

And the fact that the city had to settle didn’t sit well with Councilman Matt Schellenberg.

“I’m mostly concerned that you’re suing the city and during that time the mayor appointed you on the JEA board,” he said Monday, when her nomination came to the Rules Committee.

Schellenberg, who isn’t a Rules member but often attends the committee, said he wanted Albee to watch out for the public’s interests.

“As a board member, you’re not a lawyer,” he told Albee. “Your perspective on the JEA is to be sure the citizens get the best possible rate.”

Three families sued on the grounds that the warnings damaged their property values – in some cases may have kept people from buying the homes – when there was no direct evidence their lots were polluted.

Albee’s suit was against Duval County Property Appraiser Jim Overton, but publishing the notices was part of an agreement the city had struck with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because the property felt within an area that could be polluted.

The polluted ash came from trash incinerators the city operated between the 1900s and 1960s. The ash was heavy in lead and industrial chemicals.

To know for sure what areas are polluted, the city has spent years testing lot by lot. But it didn’t have results for Albee’s clients’ land and hadn’t looked at many lots in Springfield, which was on the edge of the cleanup zone.

Albee said suing had become the last choice to settle her clients’ problem.

“The idea that a mistake had been made was falling on deaf ears,” she told Schellenberg.

Albee said she hadn’t gone hunting for a lawsuit, adding that “suing the government at any level is not something to be taken lightly.”

CEO-Paul McElroy
(904) 665-4396
Exec. Asst.
(904) 665-6243
City Council
(904) 630-1377
Mayor Alvin Brown
(904) 630-1776
(In complete agreement with JEA due to the fact JEA generated and contributed to this city $106 million this fiscal year: without Franchise Fees... or Utility taxes! Bad Form! to all of you.